Deed covenant blocks plan for Guilford synagogue (document)

GUILFORD -- Resident Donna Criscenzo says she just wants a peaceful neighborhood now that a judge has ruled that a synagogue and community center can't be built on Goose Lane.

Superior Court Judge Maureen Keegan handed down a decision Aug. 13 in New Haven that grants a permanent injunction preventing Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline from erecting the religious building because of a restrictive covenant in the deed to the 181 Goose Lane property.

But whether the debate surrounding the proposed development will die down remains to be seen, as the Jewish organization has until the start of September to appeal the verdict.

Jonathan Starble of Hartford, the attorney for Chabad, declined to comment Friday beyond saying he and his client are "reviewing the decision and analyzing our options."

Advertisement

Criscenzo, who declined to comment further Friday, and Goose Lane neighbors Sherrye McDonald and James Colebrook, who could not be reached for comment, sued in August 2008 to halt Chabad's plan to build a 13,700-square-foot synagogue and day care center on its property, saying it violated the parcel's deed. Chabad received approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission in December 2008 to build.

A four-day trial was held in January with testimony from the three plaintiffs, Rabbi Yossi Yaffe, who is the director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline; title attorney David Royston, of Middletown and Old Saybrook; and Idaho resident Jared Dudley, the son of the covenant's original grantors.

"Basically, I think this validates what we've been saying over the last few years -- that this is a residential property and it can only be used as a residential property," the neighbors' attorney, Edward Cassella of Old Saybrook, said Friday.

"And they (Chabad) raised several defenses in attempting to avoid the imposition of the covenant, including that the area had changed on Goose Lane, and I think her (Keegan's) rationale on that was ... it remains a residential area and constitutes a neighborhood."

According to Keegan's 35-page decision, the proposed religious building violates a covenant formed by Charles and Amy Dudley when the land was sold in 1947 which says the property can only be used for farming or homes.

Cassella and the Goose Lane residents had argued that the neighbors had a right to enforce the covenant because their land was owned by the Dudleys when the covenant was imposed. But Chabad, which practices a branch of Hasidic Judaism and is based in Branford, had argued that only the Dudleys had the right to enforce it, and both are dead.

Keegan said in her decision there was evidence "that the Dudleys intended that the residential and farming restriction continue to benefit their land on the east side of Goose Lane."

"Despite the value the proposed center could provide to the community," she said, "the court's decision does not turn on the worthiness of the defendant's endeavor. It instead turns on whether the defendant's proposed use qualifies as a 'residential' or 'farming' use. Here, it does not."

The covenant also trumps any claims that enforcing the restrictions may devalue the property, according to the decision.

The Goose Lane neighbors also have a lawsuit against the PZC's approval of the religious center, and Cassella says the plaintiffs are considering their next step in that matter. Even if a judge upholds the PZC's approval in the other lawsuit, the ruling on the covenant will still prevent the project.

A house sits on the Chabad property, which is near Interstate 95 Exit 59, and the group had plans to demolish it to make room for the new construction. The center was slated to have a synagogue, classrooms, a day care and playground, a commercial kitchen and a social hall.

Neighbors have argued against the development since it was proposed in 2006.